1. US-GEORGIAN SECURITY COOPERATION AGREEMENT PROVOKES OUTCRY IN RUSSIA
Sergei Blagov: 4/16/03
A new bilateral security pact between the United States and Georgia has provoked an outcry in Moscow. Some Russian officials say the accord, which gives US military personnel broad privileges in Georgia, threatens the strategic balance in the Caucasus. Already, the agreement has injected a new element of hostility into Georgian-Russian relations.
The Georgian parliament ratified the bilateral agreement on defense cooperation in late March. Since then Russian government officials have kept up a steady stream of invective against the pact. Under the agreement’s provisions, US military personnel are allowed visa-free entry and exit from Georgia, are permitted to carry weapons and are immune from prosecution in Georgian courts. The agreement also grants the US military to deploy hardware without impediments on Georgian territory.
Georgia, perhaps the weakest state in the Caucasus, has emerged in recent years as a center of geopolitical competition between the United States and Russia, which are both interested in establishing a controlling influence in the resource-rich Caspian Basin. Both Washington and Moscow have a military presence in Georgia. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Read Entire Article Herearticle written in Nov 2007
2. GEORGIA IN US-FINANCED ARMS RACE FOR WAR ON ABKHAZIA, SOUTH OSSETIA
Georgia is preparing for a US-financed war against Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That is what the country’s military build-up reveals, according to a leading journalist and political analyst from Geneva. Since the current regime took power, Georgian military spending has effectively increased by over forty times and now has the highest growth-rate of any country in the world.
3. GEORGIA OPPOSITION LEADER DIES SUDDENLY IN LONDON
MARGARITA ANTIDZE | TBILISI, GEORGIA – Feb 13 2008 10:52
Wealthy Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who led and financed a big opposition campaign against President Mikhail Saakashvili, has died in London, one of his aides said on Wednesday.
“Yes, I can confirm this, he died yesterday [Tuesday] night,” Nona Gaprindashvili, the former head of his presidential election campaign, told Reuters. A report on Georgian public television said the businessman had died of a heart attack.
“It happened at 11 o’clock [last night] at Badri’s house outside London. As far as I know from his relatives, it was his heart,” Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a friend and business partner of Patarkatsishvili, told Reuters by phone from his London home.
British police said they had not received any reports on his death, suggesting that it was not being treated as suspicious. London coroners were not immediately reachable for comment.
Patarkatsishvili (52) a wealthy and prominent figure in his native Georgia, had been living in London since last year after Georgian authorities accused him of plotting a coup against the president and issued a warrant for his arrest.
4. Soldiers from Georgia and the U.S. rest before the opening ceremony of “Immediate Response 2008″ at the Vaziani military base, outside Tbilisi, July 15, 2008. Forces from the U.S., Armenia and Georgia will take part in the international military exercise.
Spidered News; What Really Happened; New World Order Truth | Saturday, August 9, 2008
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